​Jon describes the four criteria he uses to determine if a math lesson or tool is right for his classroom. He encourages every teacher to create their own criteria to determine which tools will create good learning opportunities for their classes. He also wrote a blog post about his talk.

In this tongue-in-cheek session Michael describes ten rules to perpetuate math anxiety in our students. Rules such as "Always insist on students using the correct method" and "Always speak in the abstract and use lots of symbols. Never use manipulatives" will insure that math students dread your class.

How do you respond when a student asks, "When will I ever use this in real life?" Dan says that this is not a question about the future but a complaint about the present. He tells you his response through the story of his quest to break the record for creating the longest chain of paper clips.

Steve's high energy talk begins with him jumping on a table and throwing money. He sets forth a vision for math class that replaces repetitive routines that are trivial and boring with fewer, more complex tasks, that are contextual and culturally inclusive.

2017 OAME Ignite in Kingston, OntarioMatthew Oldridge (@MatthewOldridge) - Math is Play​​Matthew describes a pedagogy of playful mathematics and shares a number of rich problems that allow students to explore and play with math. He hopes for students to describe mathematics by saying, "Math is surprise and wonder, and playing with numbers."

2011 NCTM Annual Ignite in Indianapolis, INArjan Khalsa (@ArjanKhalsa) - ​Music and Math: Exploring Fractions in Music​Arjan describes how a mandolin is essentially a fraction machine and explores the ways in which math and music are connected using melodies and songs from numerous cultures. He describes the special relationship between music and math using motion, devotion, emotion and commotion. There is even a sing along at the end!

I've been working on my own ignite talk and have discovered how difficult it is to craft one. There is a lot of reflection and thought involved in refining what you are really passionate about as an educator, determining how to explain it clearly and figuring out how to make it entertaining. At this point, my talk is a still just an organized collection of notes, ideas and images. I don't have any plans to actually present this ignite talk, but I feel that the process of creation and reflection is very worthwhile.

I get so excited when my kids tell me stories of what is happening in their math classes. This is a favourite.

My youngest son (age 7, grade 2) began his story as soon as I picked him up from school.

"Mommy, did you know that if you wanted to buy, let's say some....fabric, you couldn't just like go the fabric store and say 'I'll have 20 pencils of fabric'"

I was curious where this was heading; being a mathematics consultant, I knew what grade 2's were working on at this time of year (measurement). I didn't want to steal his thunder, so I just went with it.

"Really, Michael?" I turned into teacher mode: "Can you tell me some more about that?"

He went on to explain in great detail and with loads of enthusiasm about all the trouble he would run into if he wanted to measure fabric with random objects. He actually had a lot of fun naming all of the things that would be silly to use to measure fabric. He went on for a while and wrapped up the conversation telling me there was this "thing" called a "centimeter" that we could all use and understand. You would swear he discovered the metric system himself; he took such ownership of the concept.

Keep in mind, I can't think of a time he has ever been in a fabric store (I am not the crafty type) and I am almost certain that before this math lesson, he would never have used the word fabric (cloth or material, maybe?).

So he had no previous experience with the concept but he was still engaged? Yes.

​When I was at Dan Meyer's NCTM presentation (Beyond Relevance & Real World: Stronger Strategies for Student Engagement) last week, I couldn't help but think of this story from my son. I can imagine the kind of "teacher moves" my son's teacher used. She is a natural story teller, her enthusiasm is contagious and she loves to laugh. I can imagine her telling a story to the class, strategically leaving out important parts, having them experience her fabric store dilemma for themselves and brainstorming ideas with the class on how they can fix this problem!

Even if he didn't really discover the metric system, he certainly thought he did. And his teacher created those conditions. And I think that's pretty cool.